When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people–until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process–or she might open the gateway to a love that’s deeper than the oceans.

4 Stars

First, the cover. I am kinda digging it and covers don’t stand out to me that much so this says something. This was a great take on mermaids! The world building was awesome and there were so many other monsters in this book as well. I like when a story incorporates other species into it, it gives an added layer to the writing. The selkies were my favorite. There were interesting subtle parallels to the human world. The smoking is one that stands out the most to me.

It took me a while to really like Treygan because he seemed to be a bit manipulative in the beginning. I eventually warmed up to his stand-offish personality. Without giving too much away, his issue with his half gorgon self really put things into perspective for me. I still liked Rownan more. He just had more charisma in my opinion.

Honestly, I wasn’t feeling Yara. She was a bit reckless with her actions and wishy washy with her emotions. I suppose that’s how it should be since she is a teenager. When they are thrown into the adult world with big issues, I guess I expect a bit more from the characters though. The storyline was a bit all over the place too, took me a bit longer to follow than it usually does. Or I am just denser than the average reader. Either one could be true. 🙂

Favorite quotes:

For a world where it isn’t us against them, a place where all of us can coexist peacefully again. But more than anything it reminds me to love. Screw the rules, damn the consequences, and just love. Love until it kills you, because there’s nothing better worth dying for.

The guy could lift castles in to the air. Eat your heart out, Cinderella.

“If we had more time I would take you to climb the apple trees, so you could know what you smell like.” She kissed my shoulder. “You taste like saltwater taffy. But your smell is like-I don’t know. It’s what I imagine heaven smells like.” I laughed hard. “My gods, is this the kind of cheesy stuff couples say to each other?”